CNN – Page 8 – immigrationcourtside.com

MORE ON USCIS “DEATH SQUADS” FROM TAL@ CNN!

Trump administration to turn away far more asylum seekers at the border under new guidance

By Tal Kopan, CNN

The Trump administration is implementing a new asylum policy at the border that will result in potentially thousands of asylum seekers being turned away before they can plead their case in court.

The guidance, reviewed by CNN, also applies to refugee applicants — immigrants seeking similar protections in the US who are still abroad.

Under new guidance given Wednesday to the officers who interview asylum seekers at the US’ borders and evaluate refugee applications, claims based on fear of gang and domestic violence will be immediately rejected. In addition, the guidance tells officers they should consider whether an immigrant crossed the border illegally and weigh that against their claim, potentially rejecting even legitimate fears of persecution if the immigrant crossed illegally.

The move is likely to draw swift condemnation from immigration advocates and legal challenges. Advocates say international law is clear that asylum claims are valid even when a migrant enters a country illegally. They also argue that rejecting these traumatized immigrants puts their lives at risk immediately upon their return home.

The changes being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security come on the heels of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision last month that gang and domestic violence victims no longer qualify for asylum. Asylum protects migrants already in the US who fear persecution in their home country.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/border-immigrants-asylum-restrictions/index.html

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Ah, the transition to the “Banana Republic of America!”

PWS

07-12-18

LIFE IN THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE: HERE’S A SHOCKER FROM TAL & SAM PATELLA @ CNN: TRUMP/SESSIONS “GONZO” IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT POLICIES UNRELATED TO REALITY!

3 graphs that explain Trump’s dilemma on the border

By Tal Kopan and Sam Petulla, CNN

President Donald Trump’s now-reversed “zero-tolerance” policy to prosecute parents who illegally cross the border with their children did not come out of thin air.

The policy, which drew international outcry for its effect of separating thousands of immigrant families, followed months of previous Trump administration efforts to change border policies, including by rolling back a host of protections for immigrant families put in place by courts and Congress.

Though these moves are partly a reflection of this President’s far more aggressive stance toward immigration, they also reflect this simple fact: Migration at the southern border today is entirely different than it was five years ago.

Much of Trump’s rhetoric on the border harks back a decade, to a time when mostly Mexican individuals were crossing the border illegally in huge numbers looking for work.

But today the situation is far different. Illegal immigration from Mexicans has dropped substantially, and increasingly migrants are fleeing violence and instability in Central America.

The pool of migrants is also increasingly made up of families and of children on their own. Many of them seek asylum when they arrive, believing they may qualify for protections designed for immigrants fleeing persecution in their home countries. They may also know that the court backlog means they’ll likely get to live in the US for at least a few years while they pursue their claims.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/politics/trump-border-immigration-charts/index.html

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WOW! You mean White Nationalism, Racism, and Child Abuse aren’t good policies? Who would have thought that?

But remember, truth, facts, common sense, and human decency are all irrelevant in the Trump Regime!

PWS

07-11-18

TAL @ CNN – JUDGE “VERY ENCOURAGED” WITH PROGRESS ON REUNITING CHILDREN WITH FAMILIES!

Only 54 children to be reunited by court deadline, but judges praises ‘progress’

By Tal Kopan and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

Roughly half of the children under 5 years old who were separated from their parents at the border will be back with their moms and dads by a court-imposed deadline Tuesday, but the Trump administration is still not sure when the rest will be reunified.

Still, at a court hearing on Monday, the federal judge who set the deadline for reunifications said he was “very encouraged” thus far.

“There’s no question that the parties are meeting and conferring,” District said. “This is real progress and I’m optimistic that many of these families will be reunited tomorrow, and then we’ll have a very clear understanding as to who has not been reunited, why not, and what time-frame will be in place.”

The hearing only covered the roughly 100 children under the age of 5 who were separated from their parents under the administration’s “zero tolerance” border prosecution policy. That group must be reunited by Tuesday under a deadline Sabraw set two weeks ago, when he first ordered the government to put the families back together.

The government still has thousands more children aged 5 and older in its custody that it will have to reunite by July 26 — but the hearing did not cover that group.

Attorneys for the government and the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the original lawsuit challenging family separations, said they worked together intensely over the weekend to identify the families affected by the deadline and to work out how to move forward.

Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian provided the court with the most detailed data thus far on the 102 children under age 5 whom it identified as separated from their parents at the border.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/politics/family-separations-reunification-hearing/index.html

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For everyone’s sake, let’s hope it all comes together.

PWS

07-10-18

BREAKING: SCOFFLAW MONDAY – FEDERAL JUDGES CONTINUE TO BLAST THE TRUMP/SESSIONS LAWLESS APPROACH TO IMMIGRATION! –“procedurally improper and wholly without merit.” — “[T]he Court does not find any indication in the cited federal statutes that Congress intended for States to have no oversight over detention facilities operating within their borders”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/09/politics/federal-judge-trump-administration-detaining-children/index.html

Laura Jarrett reports for CNN:

(CNN)A federal judge in California on Monday flatly rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to modify a decades-old settlement agreement that limits the length of time and conditions under which US officials may detain immigrant children.

The Justice Department had asked US District Judge Dolly Gee to modify what’s known as the Flores settlement to give the Trump administration maximum flexibility to detain families not only until their criminal proceedings conclude, but also through the end of any asylum proceedings, which could drag on for many months.

In a strongly worded order, Gee added that there was no basis for the change, calling it “procedurally improper and wholly without merit.”

“It is apparent that Defendants’ Application is a cynical attempt, on an ex parte basis, to shift responsibility to the Judiciary for over 20 years of Congressional inaction and ill-considered Executive action that have led to the current stalemate. The parties voluntarily agreed to the terms of the Flores Agreement more than two decades ago. The Court did not force the parties into the agreement nor did it draft the contractual language. Its role is merely to interpret and enforce the clear and unambiguous language to which the parties agreed, applying well-established principles of law.

“Regardless, what is certain is that the children who are the beneficiaries of the Flores Agreement’s protections and who are now in Defendants’ custody are blameless. They are subject to the decisions made by adults over whom they have no control. In implementing the Agreement, their best interests should be paramount,” Gee wrote.

Gee said that “absolutely nothing prevents Defendants from reconsidering their current blanket policy of family detention and reinstating prosecutorial discretion.”

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

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http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/396210-judge-dismisses-most-of-trump-administration-lawsuit-over-california

Max Greenwood reports for The Hill:

A federal judge on Monday dismissed most of the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to knock down a series of California immigration laws, delivering a major blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to crack down on so-called sanctuary states.

U.S. District Judge John Mendez tossed out the part of the lawsuit seeking to invalidate Senate Bill 54, which limits cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement. He also dismissed an effort to block another law — Assembly Bill 103 — which allows the California attorney general to review and report on immigrant detention facilities.

Mendez also tossed out part of the lawsuit against Assembly Bill 405, which sought to limit private employers’ cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Mendez’s dismissals mean that California will be able to continue limiting its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

In dismissing the Justice Department’s case against the two laws, Mendez rejected the Trump administration’s argument that only the federal government has the final say on immigration enforcement and regulation under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

“[T]he Court does not find any indication in the cited federal statutes that Congress intended for States to have no oversight over detention facilities operating within their borders,” Mendez wrote.

The dismissals came days after Mendez rejected the Trump administration’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the laws while the case played out in court.

The Justice Department first brought the lawsuit against California in March, arguing that the sanctuary laws effectively hindered federal efforts to enforce immigration policies.

But Mendez rejected that argument, writing in his rejection of the Trump administration’s injunction request last week that “refusing to help is not the same as impeding.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, whose office is charged with defending the state against the lawsuit, celebrated the dismissals on Monday, saying that it upheld California’s right to determine how best to protect its residents’ privacy and security.

“Today’s decision is a victory for our State’s ability to safeguard the privacy, safety, and constitutional rights of all of our people,” he said in a statement. “Though the Trump Administration may continue to attack a state like California and its ability to make its own laws, we will continue to protect our constitutional authority to protect our residents and the rule of law.”

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

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My question: When are Federal Judges going to start holding Sessions and his ethically challenged gang of scofflaw lawyers from the DOJ in contempt and referring them for bar disciplinary proceedings for continuously abusing their offices by burdening the Federal Courts with meritless, largely frivolous litigation? Even worse, the litigation is driven by racism — an inherently objectionable basis!

PWS

07-09-18

GOOD NEWS FROM THE U.S. IMMIGRATION COURT IN ARLINGTON, VA BY TAL @ CNN: U.S. IMMIGRATION JUDGE JOHN MILO BRYANT SHOWS CONGRESS, PUBLIC, PRESS HOW IMMIGRATION COURT COULD & SHOULD WORK IF JEFF SESSIONS & THE DOJ WERE REMOVED FROM THE PICTURE & THE JUDGES WERE INDEPENDENT RATHER THAN BEING UNETHICALLY TOLD BY SESSIONS THAT THEY ARE “PARTNERS WITH DHS!”

The Wonderful Tal Kopan of CNN

Judge Roger Harris, Me, Judge Thomas Snow, & Judge John Milo Bryant (“The Non-Conformist”) head out to lunch on my last day at the Arlington Immigration Court, June 30, 2016

http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/politics/immigration-court-hearings/index.html

‘Just be a kid, OK?’: Inside children’s immigration hearings

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

As each immigrant child took their seat in his courtroom for their hearing, Judge John M. Bryant started the same way.

“How are you doing today?” he’d ask.

“Muy bien,” most would answer.

In a span of about 45 minutes, Bryant — an immigration judge in Arlington, Virginia — checked in on the cases of 16 immigrants under the age of 20, all with attorneys and some with parents.

The day was known as a “master calendar hearing” — a swift introduction in court and the beginning of court proceedings for immigrants facing deportation.

The children had largely been in the country for some time, each fighting in court for the right to stay.

But though the immigration courts have long dealt with immigrant children, even those barely school age or younger, their turn through the unique, stand-alone immigration courts is getting new attention as the government’s “zero tolerance” border policy has sent thousands more children into the system without their parents.

The hearings were observed by six Democratic members of Congress: Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland; Rep. Don Beyer, whose Virginia district includes the court; Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico; and Reps. Pete Aguilar, Nanette Diaz Barragán and Norma Torres, all of California.

At a news conference afterward, Beyer called the session “One of the best-case scenarios of a master calendar hearing, a sympathetic judge with kids with lawyers.”

The lawmakers said they had wanted to come to the court to witness it for themselves, because they fear that around the country there are too many courtrooms that are the opposite.

“We know that in vast numbers of cases, there is not proper representation,” Hoyer said, adding that some kids are “not old enough to spell their own names, let alone represent themselves in court.”

In each case, the attorneys described waiting for applications filed with the government, and all were quickly given court dates into 2019 to come back for another check-in. One, a boy named José who had just finished ninth grade, was there for his second check-in and for his full asylum hearing received a court date of May 11, 2021 — likely to be just as he is finishing high school in the US.

The youngest was a 6-year-old boy, Rodolfo, who was there with his attorney and father, though Rodolfo’s case was being heard by itself. As he did with most of the children, Bryant asked Rodolfo if he was in school, translated by an interpreter via headphones provided to every immigrant facing the court.

“Hoy?” Rodolfo asked, confused — “Today?”

Bryant cheerfully prompted Rodolfo about what grade he had finished — kindergarten — and his teacher’s name — Ms. Dani. Bryant said he still remembered his own kindergarten teacher, Ms. Sweeney, from many years prior. “Hasta luego,” Bryant told Rodolfo, giving him a next court date of May 30, 2019.

While all the children in Bryant’s courtroom on this afternoon had attorneys, the Arlington Immigration Court is not typical of the country, where closer to 1-in-3 children are represented in court. Bryant was also generous with the continuances requested by attorneys as they waited to hear from the government on applications for other visas for the children, despite uniform opposition by the government attorney in court.

“Mr. Wagner, your turn,” Bryant joked at one point to the government attorney present, who dutifully recited the government’s opposition to granting continuances solely on the basis of waiting to hear back on a visa application. Bryant than immediately picked a day on his calendar for the immigrant and attorney to return.

One attorney for a 12-year-old girl, Rosemary, who was there with her mother, said they had applied for a Special Immigrant Juvenile visa, which is for minors who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by a parent. Bryant asked the attorney if the application was before a “sweet or sour judge.”

“I think it’s going to be a problem. It may have to be appealed,” the attorney replied.

The judge granted them a court date on February 28 of next year.

“Have a nice summer,” he said to the girl. “Just be a kid, OK?”

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“The lawmakers said they had wanted to come to the court to witness it for themselves, because they fear that around the country there are too many courtrooms that are the opposite.” And, with very good reason!

No trace of the Jeff Sessions’s paranoia, xenophobia, bias, child abuse, and de-humanization of migrants here. It’s like one would expect a “real” U.S. Court to be run! Sadly, that’s not what’s happening in the rest of the country. Just ask folks in Charlotte, Atlanta, Stewart, Ga., or Houston how they are treated by Immigration Judges. It’s ugly, abusive, well documented, highly inappropriate, and needs to end!

Even more outrageously, rather than building on and replicating successful judicial models like Arlington, Sessions has actually adopted some of the worst imaginable “judicial” practices, encouraged bias, and has actually endorsed and empowered the actions of some of the most clearly biased and anti-immigrant, anti-asylum Immigraton Judges in the system. It’s a simply unacceptable waste of taxpayer money and abuse of our legal system by someone incapable of fulfilling his oath of office.

Imagine, with judges actually in control, lawyers for the respondents, time to prepare and file applications, empathy, courtesy, knowledge, kindness, concern for fairness, efficiency, and giving ICE’s obstructionist “rote objections” and other dilatory tactics encouraged and enabled by this Administration exactly the short shrift they so richly deserve, the U.S. Immigration Courts could potentially fulfill their original vision of “becoming the world’s best tribunals, guaranteeing fairness and due process for all.”

And, ICE could be once again required to function in the same highly-professional, courteous, collegial, respectful, and helpful manner that they did in Arlington during the last Administration. It’s disgraceful that rudeness and unfairness have become the norm under Trump. Things like that used to get even Government lawyers fired, disbarred, or disciplined. Now they appear to win kudos.

And, having dockets run by experienced judicial professionals like Judge Bryant with the help of professional staff responsible to him and his colleagues would promote fairness, quality, and efficiency over the “Amateur Night at the Bijou” atmosphere created by a biased, politicized, and totally incompetent Department of Justice and carried out by agency bureaucrats who aren’t judges themselves and are not qualified to administer a major court system.

Why not design a system “built for success” rather one that is built for failure and constant crisis? A well-functioning court system where “Due Process and Quality Are Job One” and which serves as a “level playing field” would actually help DHS Enforcement as well as the immigrants whose lives depend upon it. Fairness and Due Process are good for everyone. It’s also what our Constitution requires! Play the game fairly and professionally and let the chips fall where they may, rather than trying to “game the system” to tilt everything toward enforcement.

But, it’s not going to happen until either 1) Congress creates an independent U.S. Immigration Court, or 2) the Article III Courts finally step up to the plate, put an end to this travesty, remove the DOJ from its totally improper and unethical supervisory role, and place the Immigration Courts under a court-appointed “Special Master” to manage them with the goal of Due Process and judicial efficiency until Congress reorganizes them outside of the Executive Branch! Otherwise, the Article IIIs will have to do the job that Sessions won’t let the Immigration Courts perform!

Compare Judge Bryant’s professional performance with the “judicial meat processing plant/Due Process Denial Factory” being operated by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby on the Southern Border as described by Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post in my post from yesterday:

http://immigrationcourtside.com/2018/06/28/karen-tumulty-washpost-assembly-line-justice-is-already-the-norm-in-u-s-district-courts-at-the-border-as-go-along-to-get-along-u-s-magistrate-convicts-bewilder/

Who is the “real” judge here? It doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to answer that one! Just some judges with the backbone, courage, and integrity not to “go along to get along” with Sessions’s assault on the integrity and independence of our justice system.

PWS

06-30-18

MY CLIP TODAY FROM CNN’S “AT THIS HOUR WITH KATE BOLDUAN” — Ah, The Fleeting Nature Of Fame . . . If they Had Only Gotten My Name Right — That’s When You Know You’re Not In Milwaukee Any More!

https://www.cnn.com/shows/at-this-hour

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Obviously, I need an agent!

PWs

06-27-18

NEWS FROM THE KAKISTOCRACY: HOW TOTALLY INCOMPETENT IS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IN SOLVING THEIR SELF-CREATED “CHLD ABUSE CRISIS?” — Need You Ask?

6 children in 6 days, thousands left: Inside the family reunifications

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

The Trump administration has more than 2,000 children it separated from their parents in its custody. In a six-day span, that number only went down by six children.

It’s still unknown, though, whether those children were reunited with parents, other family or otherwise transferred out of Health and Human Services custody, and the government has not answered questions about the circumstances of their release.

The stories are heart wrenching.

A Guatemalan woman sued the government after her 7-year-old son was separated from her, and in the middle of those proceedings was able to reunite with her son.

As Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia embraced her son, Darwin, at the Baltimore Washington International Airport for the first time in more than a month, she cried.

“I love you,” she said in Spanish, between sobs.

But thousands more parents remain in limbo.

The Annunciation House, which hosts undocumented immigrants in El Paso, Texas, received 32 separated parents on Sunday upon their release from detention. According to the parents, the average child’s age is 10, and just three of the parents had spoken with their child personally since they were separated.

In an emotional news conference, some of the parents told their stories of trying to find their children in government custody.

One woman, Miriam, from Guatemala, said she didn’t have a chance to say a word to her 4-year-old son before he was taken from her at dawn while he was fast asleep — he was still asleep when they put him on a truck and drove away, she said.

When she was finally able to reach him Monday by phone in New York, she said he refused to speak to her. CNN was unable to confirm how much time had passed since their separation. But as Miriam tells it, it was long enough to make an impression on him.

“He’s mad at me,” she said, tears in her eyes. “He thinks that I abandoned him.”

Data hard to come by

The administration has been reticent to release much data about the results of its prosecution policy that ended up separating more than 2,000 families at the border in about six weeks. But the new figures show how slow the pace has been to put those families back together — even as a federal judge has now ordered the government to do so in 30 days.

On Tuesday, the secretary of Health and Human Services said there were 2,047 migrant children in its care as a result of being separated from their parents at the border so the parents could be prosecuted on criminal charges. Six days prior, the government had said there were 2,053 such children.

That day, June 20, was when President Donald Trump signed an executive order reversing course on his administration’s decision to separate families — ordering they be held together even during prosecution. In implementing the order, Border Patrol within hours stopped referring parents for criminal charges, thus effectively ending the “zero-tolerance” policy for the time being.

Late Tuesday night, a federal judge in California issued a nationwide order that required the administration to stop detaining immigrant families separately, aside from special circumstances; to reunify parents with children under the age of 5 within two weeks; and to reunite parents with any children aged 5 and over within 30 days.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/27/politics/six-children-families-separated-reunifications/index.html

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Sounds like “business as usual” at DHS in the Age of Trump & Sessions. Sometimes, their incompetence at governing tempers their cruelty and inhumanity.

But, in this case, it actually multiplies the damage.

How long until some Federal Judge holds Sessions & Nielsen in contempt? Sanctions DOJ lawyers for misrepresentations in court? What about Bivens damage suits against Sessions, Nielsen & company since they are violating well-established Constitutional rights to Due Process?

PWS

06-27-18

TAL@ CNN: SESSIONS’S MOVES TO UNDERMINE DUE PROCESS IN IMMIGRATION COURTS NOT ENOUGH FOR TRUMP, WHO WANTS TO DO AWAY WITH CONSTITUTION — Huckabee Sanders Spouts Nonsense! (What Else Is New?)

Trump fumes over immigration courts Sessions has focused on

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

President Donald Trump in recent days has fumed about the immigration courts that handle cases of people seeking entry into the US.

But Trump’s fixation on the courts and the judges who staff them flies in the face of what his attorney general has been trying to do to reshape the courts to align with the President’s vision, including hiring more immigration judges and restricting asylum laws.

The President tweeted that those stopped at the border should be simply told they can’t enter, rather than going through the system.

“When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or court cases, bring them back from where they came,” Trump tweeted on Saturday.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday that “virtually all Americans” agree that drawn-out court proceedings don’t make sense for migrants who enter the country illegally. Trump, she said, “would certainly like to see more expedited removal.”

“Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you aren’t receiving due process,” she said.

The immigration courts decide whether immigrants have a legal right to stay in the US or should be deported — and those cases include people arriving at the border as well people from the interior of the US, who may or may not have had legal status at some point.

But Trump’s suggestion has several problems, including the fact that there are fewer than 350 immigration judges nationwide and the Justice Department has budgeted for only 100 more.

In addition, the suggestion that the immigration courts could be done away with altogether would likely fly in the face of the Constitution and a host of domestic and international laws that bestow rights on everyone in the US and crossing the border, regardless of whether they are citizens.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/25/politics/trump-sessions-immigration-judges-courts/index.html

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There is no Due Process without an impartial decision maker (lots of doubt as to whether any Immigration Judge working for Jeff Sessions can be considered “impartial”).
Jeff Sessions has nothing to do with virtue. His disingenuous, racist, White Nationalist policies are the polar opposite of “virtue.”
As the Supreme Court has said, Due Process takes time — sometimes a lot, sometimes less.
Trump’s outrageous proposals violate our Constitution, our statutory law, and two international conventions to which we are party.
There is no crisis for the United States, except the unnecessary one that Trump and Sessions have created with their lawless behavior.
But, there is a crisis in the Northern Triangle for which we are at least partially responsible.
The stakes for the refugees are literally life or death — Trump and Sessions’s dehumanizing rhetoric is beyond disgusting.
Even those who fail to qualify for protection after full hearings likely face rape, torture, extortion, severe beatings, mutilation, or death upon return. We actually should be protecting more, not fewer, of them.

PWS

06-25-18

TAL @ CNN: EVIDENCE MOUNTS OF SESSIONS’S ILLEGAL POLITICIZED HIRING OF IMMIGRATION JUDGES — Best Qualified Individuals Need Not Apply? – Is He Looking For Hacks Who Share His White Nationalist Bias? – When Is Congress Going To Create An Article I Court?

Immigration judge applicant says Trump administration blocked her over politics

By Tal Kopan, CNN

When the Obama administration offered Thea Lay a chance to serve as one of the nation’s top immigration judges pending a successful background check, she eagerly accepted.

But the Trump administration withdrew her offer this year with little explanation after months of silence — and she suspects it’s because of her political ideology.

Lay’s case is one of several being questioned by House Democrats, who have accused the Justice Department of political bias in hiring judges to serve on the nation’s immigration courts — which would be against the law. And the suspicion of politically based hiring, even if unfounded, belies the greater criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ broader efforts to speed up the immigration courts and use his authority as attorney general to single-handedly interpret immigration law.

Lay has spent much of her 25-year career working on the exact type of asylum law Sessions recently reinterpreted by rolling back protections for domestic violence victims, and she worries that she was perceived as having an ideology that would not be welcome on the Board of Immigration Appeals.

The Justice Department forcefully denies that political ideology has been a factor in any of its hiring of immigration judges, including the decision on Lay, citing federal laws which say it cannot be. They say Lay declined a temporary appointment to the position and cite that and a subsequent reevaluation of the salary for the position as the reason for her rejection.

But the questions about whether there was a quiet move away from candidates who were perceived as too pro-immigrant is an illustration of the unique position the attorney general holds, as the political appointee who hires, manages and can single-handedly overrule each of the nation’s immigration judges.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/21/politics/immigration-judge-applicant-says-trump-administration-blocked-her-over-politics/index.html

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Sessions is fortunate that the “Do-Nothing” GOP has control of both Judiciary Committees. But, some day the truth will out. And, given Sessions’s already well-established record of lies, distortions, and misrepresentations, it could be pretty ugly.

PWS

06-22-18

LATEST NEWS FROM THE KAKISTOCRACY: SURPRISE! — COULD BE “TOUGH NOOGIES” FOR THOSE FAMILIES ALREADY SUBJECTED TO CHILD ABUSE – THEY MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT EVER FIND THEIR KIDS – HHS UNABLE TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE!

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/politics/trump-family-separation-executive-order/index.html

Tal Kopan reports for CNN:

Doesn’t reunite families already separated

The order does not speak to any families that have already been separated — and existing policies place the onus on parents to find their children in HHS custody and seek to reunite with them.

On Wednesday afternoon, HHS spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said, “For the minors currently in the unaccompanied alien children program, the sponsorship process will proceed as usual.”

Later Wednesday, HHS’ families division’s senior director of communications put out a statement that Wolfe “misspoke,” but didn’t articulate any changes yet to plans for separated families.

“It is still very early and we are awaiting further guidance on the matter,” Brian Marriott said. “Our focus is on continuing to provide quality services and care to the minors in HHS/ORR funded facilities and reunifying minors with a relative or appropriate sponsor as we have done since HHS inherited the program. Reunification is always the ultimate goal of those entrusted with the care of UACs, and the administration is working towards that for those UACs currently in HHS custody.”

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Read the rest of Tal’s analysis of the entire Executive Order at the link.

Chaos normally ensues when Trump rolls out one of his “amateur night” Executive Orders on immigration. Not too surprising, since nobody in the Administration really understands immigration laws anyway. They just operate off of cue cards and backgrounders written by White Nationalist organizations. Not always your best source of legal expertise.

By this time tomorrow, there will probably be half a dozen contradictory statements or just outright lies about what happened or is going to happen to those already separated. The important thing up until this afternoon was to separate families to give Little Stevie Miller and his former boss Gonzo Apocalypto their jollies and to “send a message.” Whether kids ever see their families again — who cares? Brain damaged for life — who cares? Should have stayed in El Salvador and died together as a family rather than expecting humane treatment or compliance with international obligations from the United States.

I predict that it will take one or more court orders to finally get the Trumpsters to do the right thing.

PWS

06-20-18

INSIDE THE CHILD ABUSE CONSPIRACY: LIKE MANY CRIMINALS, TRUMP’S “GANG OF SIX” CAN’T KEEP THEIR STORIES STRAIGHT — But, There Is One Consistency — Everything These “Kakistocrats” Say Is A Lie!

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-the-trump-administration-is-defending-its-indefensible-child-separation-policy.html

Dahlia Lithwick reports for Slate:

Photos by Win McNamee/Getty Images, Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images, Mark Wilson/Getty Images, Leon Neal/Getty Images, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, and Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

COVER STORY

POLITICS

How They Defend the Indefensible

The Trump administration is playing a game of choose your own facts, but every single version of this story ends with screaming children in cages.

By DAHLIA LITHWICK

JUNE 19, 20181:32 PM

TWEET

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You can call it a “policy” (Jeff Sessions) or you can call it a not-policy (Kirstjen Nielsen) or you can call it a “law” (Sarah Huckabee Sanders). You can say that yes it’s a policy but nobody likes it (Kellyanne Conway) or you can say it’s a “zero-tolerance” enforcement of a Democratic law (Donald Trump) or a zero-tolerance enforcement of an amalgam of various congressional laws (Nielsen) or a zero-tolerance enforcement of the Department of Justice’s own preferences with respect to enforcing prior laws (Sessions).

You can say the purpose of the Justice Department’s family separation policy is deterrence (Stephen Miller, John Kelly) or you can claim that asking if the purpose of the policy is deterrence is “offensive” (Nielsen). You can claim in your legal pleadings that the family separation policy is wholly “discretionary” and thus unreviewable by any court, meaning that only the president can change it (Justice Department in Ms. L v. ICE). Or you can claim that only Congress can “fix loopholes” (Nielsen) or you can say that Congress as a whole can’t fix anything because congressional Democrats are entirely to blame (Trump, Mike Huckabee).

You can blame all this newfound “loophole” action on a consent decree from 1997 in a case called Flores (Sessions, Paul Ryan, Chuck Grassley) or on a 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that interpreted Flores (Nielsen) or on a 2008 law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (Nielsen). Better yet, you can fault some magical mashup of “the law” that forces you to defend every statute to its most absurd extreme (Sanders). By this logic, you can also claim that Korematsu—the case authorizing the removal and detention of Japanese Americans during World War II—is still on the books and thus needs to be enforced because it’s also “the law,” but that would be insane. Oh, but wait. Trump proxies made that very claim during the campaign (Carl Higbie).

You can pretend that by turning every adult who crosses the border into a presumptive criminal your hands are tied, so you need to jail children to avoid jailing children (Nielsen). You can insist that the vast majority of children who cross the border are being smuggled in by gang members (Nielsen) or that all asylum-seekers are per se criminals (which they are not) or that lawful asylum-seekers should just come back at a better time (Nielsen). You can claim you never intended your policy (if it is in fact a policy) to have any impact on asylum-seekers at all (Nielsen) but of course it would turn out you were lying and this has been the plan all along (John Lafferty, Department of Homeland Security asylum division chief).

You can say the Bible wants you to separate children from parents (Sessions). You can say again, incredibly, that the Bible wants you to separate children from parents (Sanders). But that would be pathetic (Stephen Colbert).

You can blame the press for the photographs they take (Nielsen) and for the photographs they don’t take (Nielsen). You can suggest that the children in cages are not real children (not linking to Ann Coulter) or that the cages are not in fact cages (Steve Doocy) even though government officials admit that they are cages. You can claim that the detention facilities are “summer camps” or “boarding schools” (Laura Ingraham). You can take umbrage that the good people of DHS and CBP and ICE are being maligned (Nielsen).

You can say that separating children from their parents is a strategic move to force an agreement on Trump’s wall, which would make the children purely instrumental (Trump). Or you could say that this is a way to protect children by deterring their parents, which would also make the children purely instrumental (Kelly). Or you can instead say you are protecting the children from all the harm that happens to children transported over borders by doing untold permanent damage to them as they scream in trauma (Nielsen). Because the best way to deter child abuse is through child abuse.

You can fight to the death about comparisons to Nazis or you can celebrate a candidate (Corey Stewart) who is a hero to Nazis or you can merely show a staggering lack of comprehension about what Nazis actually did (Sessions).

You can fact check and fact check and fact check these claims and it won’t matter that they are false. And the fact that nobody in this administration even bothers to coordinate their cover stories at this point reflects just how pointless it is to fact check them anyhow. It’s an interactive game of choose your own logic, law, facts, and victims, but every single version of this story ends with screaming children in cages, sleeping under foil blankets as strangers change their diapers. The trick is twisting and dodging and weaving until you get to that final page.

It is very sad (Melania Trump). Something should be done (Ted Cruz). If only there were some mechanism to stop torturing children. If only there were some way to stop litigating why we’re doing it and who is doing it and just stop doing it.

************************************************

http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/fact-check-trump-family-separations-immigration/index.html

Tal Kopan reports for CNN:

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump on Tuesday delivered a stream-of-consciousness-style speech on immigration as furor over his administration’s separation of families at the border reaches a fever pitch.

But his speech at a small business event in Washington contained several factual inaccuracies.

White House says family separations at the border are a ‘binary choice,’ but stats say otherwise

Here is what Trump said, and what the reality is.

False claim: Family separations are Democrats’ fault

Trump said the family separations at the border are “a result of Democrat-supported loopholes in our federal laws” that he said could be easily changed.

“These are crippling loopholes that cause family separation, which we don’t want,” Trump said.

The reality: Trump’s administration made a decision to prosecute 100% of adults caught crossing the border illegally even if they came with children, and thus are separating parents from their kids at the border with no clear plan to reunite them after the parents return from jail and court proceedings.

The administration has long wanted to roll back a law unanimously passed under President George W. Bush and a court settlement dating back decades but most recently affirmed under the Obama administration — citing those two provisions as “loopholes.” Both were designed to protect immigrant children from dangers like human trafficking and to provide minimum standards for their care, including turning them over to the Department of Health and Human Services for resettlement within three days of arrest, as opposed to being held in lengthy detention, and dictating that children with their families also cannot be held in detention or jail-like conditions longer than three weeks.

The administration has complained the laws make it harder to immediately deport or reject immigrants at the border, and that they are not able to detain families indefinitely.

False claim: Thousands of judges

Trump said his administration was hiring “thousands and thousands” of immigration judges, that the US already has “thousands” of immigration judges and that other countries don’t have immigration judges.

Trump to huddle with Republicans during crucial week on immigration

In reality, there the Justice Department’s immigration courts division has 335 judges nationwide, with more than 100 more judges budgeted for, according to a DOJ spokesman.

Because of a massive backlog in the immigration courts, it can take years for those cases to work their way to completion, and many immigrants are allowed to work and live in the US in the meantime, putting down roots. The funding for immigration courts and judges has increased only modestly over the years as funding and resources for enforcement have increased dramatically. A proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to address the family separation issue would double the number of judges to 750.

Trump’s comments Tuesday echoed remarks he made last month. In a May Fox News interview, he claimed the United States was “essentially the only country that has judges” to handle immigration cases. But that is incorrect.

A number of other countries have immigration court systems or a part of the judiciary reserved for immigration and asylum cases, including Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada.

False claim: Virtually all immigrants disappear

Trump also claimed falsely that when immigrants are let into the country to have their cases heard by a court, they virtually all go into hiding.

“And by the way, when we release the people, they never come back to the judge, anyway. They’re gone,” Trump said. “Do you know if a person comes in and puts one foot on our ground, it’s essentially, ‘Welcome to America, welcome to our country.’ You never get them out because they take their name, they bring the name down, they file it, then they let the person go. … Like 3% come back.”

In reality, the number of immigrants who don’t show up to court proceedings is far lower. And many of the immigrants released from detention are given monitoring devices such as ankle bracelets to ensure they return.

Republicans craft bill to keep detained families together

According to the annual Justice Department yearbook of immigration statistics from fiscal year 2016, the most recent year for which data is available, 25% of immigration court cases were decided “in absentia” — meaning the immigrant wasn’t present in court. In that year, there were 137,875 cases. The number of cases decided “in absentia” between fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2016 was between 11% and 28%.

When White House legislative chief Marc Short made a similarly inaccurate claim on Monday, the White House pointed to a statistic about the high percentage of deportation orders for undocumented children that were delivered in absentia, but amid total case completions for minors, the number of in absentia orders has ranged from 40% to 50% in recent years.

Advocates for immigrants attribute some of the missed hearings to often not receiving a court notice mailed to an old address or not having an attorney who can adequately explain the process to the child. Studies have shown that with legal advice and guidance, immigrants are far more likely to show up for hearings and have their claims ultimately be successful.

False claim: Countries are sending bad eggs to the US

Trump said that countries deserve to be punished for illegal immigration, and that they “send” bad eggs to the US.

“They send these people up, and they’re not sending their finest,” Trump said.

He continued: ‘When countries abuse us by sending people up — not their best — we’re not going to give any more aid to those countries.”

In fact, there is no evidence that countries “send” anyone in particular to the US — rather analyses of recent immigration flows have shown that in recent years, a much higher number of Central Americans have come to the US fleeing rampant gang violence and instability in especially the countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Experts who study the countries agree that cutting aid would only further destabilize the region, likely making illegal immigration worse, not better.

Though gang members do cross the border illegally alongside those fleeing violence, the administration has never been able to provide numbers showing that those are a large percentage of the cases. Only a handful of such prosecutions occur a year, while more than 300,000 people were apprehended trying to cross the border illegally last fiscal year. Nearly 120,000 defensive asylum applications were filed last year, according to government data, meaning those individuals believed they were fleeing violent situations back home.

False Claim: Mexico isn’t helping the US

Mexico, Trump said, “does nothing for us.”

As for Mexico’s contribution, experts say the country’s crackdown on immigrants within its borders has been a major help to the US in recent years. According to statistics from the US and Mexican governments compiled by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute and shared with CNN, over the past three years, Mexico has deported tens of thousands more migrants back to the primary countries in Central America that drive immigration north. Each of the last three years, Mexican removals exceeded US removals to those countries.

Mexico is also apprehending tens of thousands of Central Americans before they reach the US. According to the data, Mexico intercepted 173,000 Central Americans in fiscal year 2015, 151,000 in fiscal year 2016 and just under 100,000 in fiscal year 2017.

In the past two years, Mexico has lagged behind the US in apprehensions, but Migration Policy Institute President Andrew Selee, an expert on Mexican policy, said that could be due to a number of factors including smugglers successfully changing their routes to avoid detection or relations with Trump.

CNN’s Catherine Shoichet and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

*****************************************

Join the New Due Process Army today!

Free the children.

Require Due Process and real justice for refugees.

Hold the lying child abusers in the kakistocracy accountable for their indefensible actions.

Remove the abusers and their enablers from office and political power.

Welcome more immigrants and refugees.

End racism masquerading as “government policy” or the “rule of law.”

Time for the decent, tolerant, majority to take back our country from the forces of darkness, evil, and dishonesty.

PWS

06-20-18

TAL @ CNN WITH THE “DUH” STORIES OF THE DAY: 1) Child Abuse Doesn’t Work As A Deterrent; 2) Trump & His Sycophants Believe In Lying, Lying Often, Lying Big, and Never Apologizing For Lying – That’s Just The Way Lenin, Stalin, Hitler And Other Tyrants Did It!

Exclusive: Trump admin thought family separations would deter immigrants. They haven’t.

By Tal Kopan, CNN

The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy that has resulted in thousands of family separations at the border hasn’t deterred immigrants from trying to enter the country illegally, despite the administration’s predictions that it would, internal Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by CNN show.

The documents, which refer to the effort as the “Prosecution Initiative,” demonstrate that in early April, days after President Donald Trump announced he would send the National Guard to the border and after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his offices would prosecute all illegal crossings referred to the Justice Department, Homeland Security staff predicted that the deterrent effects of the policies would be visible quickly.

“The full impact of policy initiatives are not fully realized for 2-3 weeks following public messaging — however, some migrants already underway may temporarily halt to determine the effects of the new policy,” the document states.

Instead, publicly released data showed a roughly 5% uptick in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally when compared to figures from April, including a big jump in unaccompanied children.

While the documents don’t speak to the conceptualization of the policy or the internal deliberations that preceded it, they call into question the administration’s justification for the policy. The lack of measurable impact on immigration lends weight to questions about the policy’s effectiveness, going beyond moral issues raised by the policy’s critics.

So far, the policy has resulted in the separations of least 2,000 children from their families.

The administration’s decision this spring to begin referring all people caught crossing the border illegally for prosecution — including those that come with children — has resulted in those families being separated when the adults are sent to face criminal charges, without clear procedures for reuniting them with their children afterward.

Read the whole story: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/family-separation-deterrence-dhs/index.html

********************************

‘We will not apologize’: Trump DHS chief defends immigration policy

By: Tal Kopan, CNN

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s highly scrutinized immigration policy Monday while at the same time calling on Congress to change the law.

“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” she said, speaking in front of a friendly audience of the National Sheriffs’ Association about the administration’s policies resulting in family separations. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”

She claimed “misinformation” was being spread about the policy, which is that all people caught crossing the border illegally are prosecuted and thus families are separated.

Critics have lambasted the policy calling it cruel, inhumane to unnecessary. Outcry has come from Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as the United Nations and religious leaders. Many have said the idea of separating children from their parents defies American and human values, as well as not needed when there are pilot programs that have shown that families with the right release conditions do show up for their court proceedings in the vast majority of cases.

Nielsen noted that it is common in all criminal matters that children do not go to jail with their parents, without noting that in most cases, those parents do not return from jail to find their kids transferred to the custody of another government agency and have to figure out how to get those kids back.

President Donald Trump squarely — and misleadingly — blamed Democrats for the unfolding crisis in opening remarks at a space policy event.

“I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault, their obstruction, they’re really obstructionist and they’re really obstructing,” he said.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility, it won’t be,” Trump said. “We want safety and we want security for our country. If the Democrats would sit down, instead of obstruction, we could have something done very quickly, good for the children, good for the country, good for the world. It could take place quickly.”

Earlier Monday he tweeted: “It is the Democrats fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder Security and Crime. Tell them to start thinking about the people devastated by Crime coming from illegal immigration. Change the laws!”

Though she was not as explicit as the President in characterizing the policy as a negotiating tactic, Nielsen clearly linked the effort with the demands the administration has made on Congress, which include passing laws that even some Republicans don’t support.

“We are enforcing the laws passed by Congress, and we are doing all that we can in the executive branch to protect our communities. It is now time that Congress act to fix our broken immigration system,” Nielsen said. “Surely it is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body who makes the laws, rather than changing them, asks the body who enforces the laws not to enforce the laws. That cannot be the answer.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking at the same event as Nielsen, also defended the Trump administration’s immigration practices Monday morning.

“These children are not entering at points of entry, but dangerous places,” Sessions said. “They can go to our ports of entry if they want to claim asylum.”

Sessions said the children “are taken care of,” at an “enormous cost.” Sessions called the system “generous.” He also emphasized most children have come here unaccompanied and said the Department of Health and Human Services takes custody of them at a cost of more than $1 billion a year.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/kirstjen-nielsen-immigration-policy/index.html

*********************************

Obviously, academics, knowledge, truth, and history are “out” in the Age of Trump and his White Nationalist Regime. However, as an “oldster” who once studied Modern European history, this is pretty “classic pre-WWII Third Reich.”

These folks really need to be voted out of office! Every day they are in office and their power is unchecked by a spineless and equally corrupt GOP legislative cabal in Congress , we come closer to a national disaster. We’re already sort of there with a national policy of child abuse where the abusers blame the victims.

PWS

06-17-18

DOUG CRISS @ CNN: NEWS FROM THE KAKISTOCRACY: EXPOSING AMERICA’S “KIDDIE GULAG” — PUBLIC FINALLY STARTING TO GRASP THE UGLY TRUTH — SESSIONS, TRUMP, & NIELSEN HAVE INSTITUTED A NATIONAL POLICY OF CHILD ABUSE – BROAD SPECTUM IS FINALLY SPEAKING OUT AGAINST IMMORAL AND DISINGENUOUS ACTIONS OF OUR SO-CALLED “LEADERS!”

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/15/us/five-things-june-15-trnd/index.html

Doug writes:

Criticism is heating up over the Trump administration’s decision to separate children from parents who cross the border into the US illegally. Rallies against it were held yesterday across the country. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tried to use the Bible to justify the policy, but that only seemed to tick people off more. CNN’s Bob Ortega went inside the largest facility where children are being held. It’s in a former Walmart superstore in Brownsville, Texas, and holds almost 1,500 kids. Religious groups have spoken out against the policy, and now medical organizations — like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association — are sounding the alarm as well.

******************************************

Wow! What a great, concise, clearly written report! Doug says a lot in five sentences with helpful links to help us understand how evil Sessions actually is. Compare real writing like this with the 30 or so pages of turgid legal prose and gobbledygook that Sessions spewed forth in Matter of A-B- in an attempt to mask his evil intent and unlawful actions!

Time for folks to stand up fight this horrible individual who is abusing his office and power and attacking America’s and the world’s future!

Evil is evil! Call Sessions out, and demand that the Article III Courts and Congress put an end to this disgusting abuse!

DUE PROCESS FOREVER! JEFF SESSIONS NEVER! JOIN THE NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY TODAY AND FIGHT EVIL AND INJUSTICE FROM BORDER TO BORDER, SEA TO SEA, UNTIL IT IS BANISHED FROM OUR LAND FOREVER! END THE KAKISTOCRACY THAT IS RUINING AMERICA!

PWS

06-14-18

MEANWHILE, IN OTHER NEWS: TAL& LAUREN @ CNN GIVE US A MONDAY AM UPDATE ON THE (SEEMINGLY) NEVER ENDING DREAMER SAGA!

House DACA talks prepare to enter new high-stakes stage

By Tal Kopan and Lauren Fox, CNN

A rebellion by moderate House Republicans to force an immigration vote is widely expected to succeed this week, pushing members in at least one chamber of Congress to address one of the most hot-button topics in American politics months before the midterm elections and against the wishes of GOP leadership.

The final congressional signatures are likely to be added to a proposal in the next 36 hours that would bypass the wishes of House Speaker Paul Ryan and his deputies and ensure moderates a vote on immigration later this month.

But there’s a catch.

Moderates say they will continue to negotiate with party leadership and conservatives — even if they get enough support to force their own vote — in hopes that a different, Republican-only immigration deal can spare the party leaders from an embarrassing and free-wheeling debate on the floor expected to benefit a bipartisan deal heavily supported by Democrats, while still delivering the immigration vote moderates need.

The House Republican infighting on this issue highlights how divisive immigration is to Republicans in Congress, particularly on questions of whether to support a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants as well as what to pair with it beyond a border wall, including substantial changes to the legal immigration system. The fight has also tested the power of leadership keeping moderates and conservatives at the negotiating table for weeks even while progress has seemed slow to nonexistent.

But as for staving off at least one key development, leadership’s time appears to be up.

The fireworks are expected to begin Tuesday. That’s the day members of the House return to Washington from the weekend and thus can physically sign a discharge petition, a rarely used and rarely successful House procedural maneuver that forces a vote on a bill (or in this case a series of bills) if half of House members sign on. It is also the last day the petition’s organizers believe they have to get all the signatures if they want to hold the series of immigration votes before the end of the month.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/politics/daca-congress-discharge-petition-immigration/index.html

*****************************************

Given Sessions’s daily, indeed nearly hourly, assaults on the law, the Constitution, and human values, sometimes it’s hard to remember that other stuff is going on.

PWS

06-11-17

SESSIONS USES SPEECH TO U.S. IMMIGRATION JUDGES TO SPREAD LIES, MOUNT ALL OUT ATTACK ON US ASYLUM LAW AND INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION LAWS – Targets Most Vulnerable Refugee Women Of Color For Latest Round Of Legal Abuses – Orders Judges To Prejudge Applications In Accordance With His Rewrite Of Law – It’s “Kangaroo Court” – The Only Question Now Is Whether Congress & Article III’s Will Let Him Get Away With Latest Perversion Of Justice @ Justice!

“Top Kangaroo lays down the law to EOIR Judges”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-delivers-remarks-executive-office-immigration-review-legal

Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks to the Executive Office for Immigration Review Legal Training Program

Washington, DC

~

Monday, June 11, 2018

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you, James, for that introduction, and thank you for your years of superb service to the Department as an SAUSA, at Main Justice, and now here at EOIR. James has been doing a fabulous job. He understands these issues, knows exactly what our challenges are, and is working steadfastly every day to meet them.

Thank you also to Katherine Reilly, Kate Sheehy, Chris Santoro, Edward So, David Neal, Chief Judge Keller, Lisa Ward, Jean King, Robin Sutman, and all of the leadership team.

It is good to be with you today.

Each one of you plays an important role in the administration of our immigration laws. Immigration judges are critical to ensuring that the Department of Justice carries out its responsibilities under the INA. You have an obligation to decide cases efficiently and to keep our federal laws functioning effectively, fairly, and consistently. As the statute states, Immigration Judges conduct designated proceedings “subject to such supervision and shall perform such duties as the Attorney General shall prescribe”.

This responsibility seeks to ensure that our immigration system operates in a manner that is consistent with the laws enacted by Congress. As you know, the INA was established to ensure a rational system of immigration in the national interest.

Of course there are provisions in the INA, consent decrees, regulations, and court decisions where the commonsense enforceability of the plain intent of the INA has been made more difficult. That’s what you wrestle with frequently.

President Trump is correct: Congress needs to clarify a number of these matters. Without Congressional action, clarity and consistency for us is much more difficult.

Let’s be clear: we have a firm goal, and that is to end the lawlessness that now exists in our immigration system. This Department of Justice is committed to using every available resource to meet that goal. We will act strategically with our colleagues at DHS and across the government, and we will not hesitate to redeploy resources and alter policies to meet new challenges as they arise.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will begin to refer as close to 100 percent of illegal Southwest Border crossers as possible to the Department of Justice for prosecution. The Department of Justice will take up those cases.

I have put in place a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal entry on our Southwest border. If you cross the Southwest border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple.

If someone is smuggling illegal aliens across our Southwest border, then we will prosecute them. Period.

I have sent 35 prosecutors to the Southwest and moved 18 immigration judges to detention centers near the border. That is about a 50 percent increase in the number of immigration judges who will be handling cases at the border.”

All of us should agree that, by definition, we ought to have zero illegal immigration in this country.

Each of us is a part of the Executive Branch, and it is our duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Ours is a public trust.

And the United States of America is not a vague idea. It is not just a landmass or an economy. Ours is a sovereign nation state with a constitution, laws, elections, and borders.

As you all well know, one of our major difficulties today is the asylum process.

The asylum system is being abused to the detriment of the rule of law, sound public policy, and public safety— and to the detriment of people with just claims. Saying a few simple words—claiming a fear of return—is now transforming a straightforward arrest for illegal entry and immediate return into a prolonged legal process, where an alien may be released from custody into the United States and possibly never show up for an immigration hearing. This is a large part of what has been accurately called, “catch and release”.

Beginning in 2009, more and more aliens who passed an initial USCIS credible fear review were released from custody into the United States pending a full hearing. Powerful incentives were created for aliens to come here illegally and claim a fear of return. In effect, word spread that by asserting this fear, they could remain in the United States one way or the other. Far too often, that rumor proved to be true.

The results are just what one would expect. The number of illegal entrants has surged. Credible fear claims have skyrocketed, and the percentage of asylum claims found meritorious by our judges declined.

That’s because the vast majority of the current asylum claims are not valid. For the last five years, only 20 percent of claims have been found to be meritorious after a hearing before an Immigration Judge. In addition, some fifteen percent are found invalid by USCIS as a part of their initial screening.

Further illustrating this point, in 2009, DHS conducted more than 5,000 credible fear reviews. By 2016, only seven years later, that number had increased to 94,000. The number of these aliens placed in immigration court proceedings went from fewer than 4,000 to more than 73,000 by 2016—nearly a 19-fold increase—overwhelming the system and leaving legitimate claims buried.

Now we all know that many of those crossing our border illegally are leaving difficult and dangerous situations. And we understand all are due proper respect and the proper legal process. But we cannot abandon legal discipline and sound legal concepts.

Under the INA, asylum is available for those who leave their home country because of persecution or fear on account of race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems— even all serious problems— that people face every day all over the world.

Today, exercising the responsibility given to me under the INA, I will be issuing a decision that restores sound principles of asylum and long standing principles of immigration law.

We have not acted hastily, but carefully. In my judgment, this is a correct interpretation of the law. It advances the original intent and purpose of the INA, and it will be your duty to carry out this ruling.

This decision will provide more clarity for you. It will help you to rule consistently and fairly.

The fact is we have a backlog of about 700,000 immigration cases, and it’s still growing. That’s more than triple what it was in 2009. This is not acceptable. We cannot allow it to continue.

At this time, when our immigration system and our immigration judges are under great stress, I am calling on you to use your best efforts and proper policies to enhance our effectiveness. To end the lawlessness and move to the virtuous cycle, we have to be very productive. Volume is critical. It just is. We ask you to evaluate your processes and disposition rates.

We ask each one of you to complete at least 700 cases a year. It’s about the average. We are all accountable. Setting this expectation is a rational management policy to ensure consistency, accountability, and efficiency in our immigration court system. Thank you for working every day to meet and exceed this goal. You can be sure that this administration and this Department of Justice supports you in this critically important and historic effort.

That’s why we are hiring more than 100 new immigration judges this calendar year. And we are actively working with our partners at DHS to ensure that we can deploy judges electronically and by video-teleconference where needed and to obtain appropriate courtroom facilities.

Let’s be clear. These actions will not end or reduce legal immigration. These actions will be directed at reducing illegal immigration. Only Congress can change legal immigration.

This is a great nation—the greatest in the history of the world. It is no surprise that people want to come here. But they must do so according to law.

When we lose clarity or have decisions that hold out hope where a fair reading of the law gives none, we have cruelly hurt many people. As we resolutely strive to consistently and fairly enforce the law, we will be doing the right thing.

The world will know what our rules are, and great numbers will no longer undertake this dangerous journey. The number of illegal aliens and the number of baseless claims will fall. A virtuous cycle will be created, rather than a vicious cycle of expanding illegality.

The American people have spoken. They have spoken in our laws and they have spoken in our elections. They want a safe, secure border and a lawful system of immigration that actually works. Let’s deliver it for them.

***********************************************

It’s all about numbers — volume over justice! What a total farce!

Sessions also lied about the low asylum grant rate. Of cases in which a merits decisions on asylum is actually rendered by an Immigration Judge after hearing, here are the actual asylum grant rates from the EOIR’s own website

Figure 16

Asylum Grant Rate

Grants

Denials

Grant Rate

FY 12

10,575

8,444

56%

FY 13

9,767

8,777

53%

FY 14

8,672

9,191

49%

FY 15

8,184

8,816

48%

FY 16

8,726

11,643

43%

In other words, for the last five years available, nearly half of the asylum applications actually decided on the merits were granted. And, that doesn’t even include individuals granted other types of protection such as withholding of removal and CAT after a merits hearing.

It’s a far cry from the bogus 20% figure Sessions used. In any event, it’s well established law that denial of an asylum application does not in any way show that it was “fraudulent” or “frivolous” as Sessions implies.

*************************************

As usual, the ever-amazing Tal Kopan was one of the first to “hit the net running” with her analysis of the Sessions speech to EOIR.

Jeff Sessions primed to overhaul asylum law

By Tal Kopan, CNN

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce a major decision that could impact thousands of asylum seekers from Central America on Monday — his latest move to use his unique authority to single-handedly reshape immigration law.

Sessions made the announcement at an annual training conference for the nation’s hundreds of immigration judges, telling them the decision would be coming and reminding them that they will be obligated to follow his interpretation of the law.

Though Sessions did not explicitly name the decision, it is widely expected to be a case involving asylum protections for domestic violence victims. Sessions referred the case to himself earlier this year and invited interested parties to submit briefs. In his remarks, Sessions implied he would be restricting the use of asylum for victims of crime, which would reverse previous court decisions and overrule a significant 2014 Board of Immigration Appeals decision that ruled Central American domestic violence victims who cannot escape their abusive partners can qualify under asylum law for protection in the US.

“Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems, even all serious problems, that people face every day all over the world,” Sessions said, reiterating the particular requirements of asylum under the law. “Today I will be exercising the responsibility given to me under the (Immigration and Nationality Act), I will be issuing a decision that restores sound principles of asylum and long standing principles of immigration law.”

The ruling and announcement is the latest evidence of Sessions taking full advantage of his authority over the immigration courts — a separate court system designed by law to be under the auspices of the Justice Department. The attorney general functions as a one-person Supreme Court in the system, in addition to hiring and evaluating the lower court judges themselves.

Sessions also reminded judges that his decision will be final, unless a federal appellate court were to overturn it on appeal.

In addition to impacting domestic violence victims, the case could also have large-scale implications for victims of other forms of crime and violence — rampant in Central America, where a majority of US asylum seekers at the southern border come from.

Related: Judge in case Sessions picked for immigrant domestic violence asylum review issued ‘clearly erroneous’ decisions, says appellate court

“In my judgment, this will be a correct interpretation of the law,” Sessions said. “It advances the original intent and purpose of the INA, and it will be your duty, of course, to carry that out.”

More: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/politics/jeff-sessions-asylum-decision/index.html

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According to Tal, the National Association of Immigration Judges (“NAIJ”) immediately criticized Sessions’s overemphasis on numerical quotas that are actually still supposed to be the subject of “good faith” labor negotiations with the NAIJ before going into effect in the Fall.

Nevertheless, Tal’s longer article (linked above) would lead one to believe that many U.S Immigration Judges look forward their new well-defined role as an “asylum denial workforce” working as part of the law enforcement “team” to send vulnerable individuals, including children, back to death, rape, extortion, or constant beatings, in probable violation of international standards, as part of the DHS enforcement effort headed by Sessions.

Sessions received a warm welcome and reception from the judges present, who gave him multiple standing ovations at the beginning and end of his speech. But some leading immigration judges reacted unfavorably to the announcement.

Denying applications based on “precedents” intentionally misinterpreting the law will definitely make dockets move faster and might even allow some Immigration Judges to earn “gold stars” — and perhaps even recognition from the Chief Enforcer himself at next year’s conference — for exceeding their deportation quotas — at least until those pesky Article III Courts get involved.

We’ll see whether the Administration’s policies of intentional cruelty, criminal prosecution, child abuse, and sending folks back to places where their lives will be endangered without fairly considering their claims of protection works as a “deterrent” (never has in the past) or merely diminishes us as a society and a country.

As I always say, “We can diminish ourselves as a nation (and we are), but that won’t stop human migration.”

It’s a far cry from when the late Attorney General Janet Reno used to appear at Immigration Judge Conferences and urge us to do our duty to provide fairness, Due Process, and “equal justice for all.”

Stay tuned for the release of the AG’s decision and more reaction.

PWS

06-11-18

Asylum Grant Rate
	Grants	Denials	Grant Rate
FY 12	10,575	8,444	56%
FY 13	9,767	8,777	53%
FY 14	8,672	9,191	49%
FY 15	8,184	8,816	48%
FY 16	8,726	11,643	43%

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“The lawmakers said they had wanted to come to the court to witness it for themselves, because they fear that around the country there are too many courtrooms that are the opposite.” And, with very good reason!

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Doesn’t reunite families already separated

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DUE PROCESS FOREVER! JEFF SESSIONS NEVER! JOIN THE NEW DUE PROCESS ARMY TODAY AND FIGHT EVIL AND INJUSTICE FROM BORDER TO BORDER, SEA TO SEA, UNTIL IT IS BANISHED FROM OUR LAND FOREVER! END THE KAKISTOCRACY THAT IS RUINING AMERICA!

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